A few years ago, I’d written on my personal blog about my effort to appreciate small, ordinary moments. I think this is really at the heart of gratitude. We often put a lot of pressure on ourselves to create Big Moments, as if all of our effort needs to be about engineering our own happiness. But the wisdom of gratitude is that finding happiness isn’t about creating, reaching, or acquiring something you don’t yet have. It’s about appreciating what’s already there. It’s not a big thing; it’s a small one, in both scope and effort.
If you’re interested, here’s the post from my own blog (it speaks especially to parents of young children): Small Wonders–Appreciating the Ordinary.
This is a useful notion to hold onto during the holidays, when we are busy, spending time with loved ones, and maybe starting to reflect on the end of the year. At these times, it helps to think of gratitude as a way to release ideals and embrace reality.
If you don’t have time for another read, have a listen! I reference this Rob Thomas song from the Disney movie “Meet the Robinsons.” It’s a sweet little song that really captures this idea to me, this call to cultivate gratitude for ordinary moments.
Given that we just faced the ten year anniversary of the loss of Kirby–the reason SEEK exists–we’ve been thinking about grief lately. The holidays can be tough for anyone who’s grieving. Read Ginny’s post from the other day on approaching the holidays when you’re hurting. And as someone who knows about grief myself, I think this idea of appreciating small moments may also be helpful when you’re grieving during the holidays. You might not feel like loud, splashy holiday events, and that’s ok. We can find joy in smaller, quieter moments, too.
And in the spirit of gratitude on Thanksgiving, we always want to express our thanks to all of the people who read our articles, share our posts, and support us in any way possible. THANK YOU! We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving! ✨
